YODER – The Yoder Woman’s Club (YWC) held its annual fall dinner over the weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, tables were lined up with some of the most scrumptious pies as the club treated the community to homemade chili and hamburgers, traditional chicken and noodle dinner, a salad bar and enough pies to feed an army. Coffee and pie were served during the social hour at 8:30 a.m. and lunch was served beginning at 11 a.m. on both days. 

Amanda Fogle, a club member, said the weather this weekend helped to draw a crowd for the ladies.

“We had a really good crowd, both days and we earned a lot of money for the club,” Fogle said. “I think we said about $3,300. I think that is a nice sum of money for our club. Really, it’s our one big fundraiser so that we don’t have to do a lot of little things. That money goes towards all of the different places we donate to.”

Fogle explained the club donates to a variety of places within Goshen County such as Eastern Wyoming College (EWC) scholarships, Goshen County Task Force, Gracie’s Promise, Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies, EWC Foundation, Raising Readers, K-2 Scholastic Book program, domestic violence, SMILE International, local personal charities and the youth art program.

“[On Saturday] it was very busy. Sundays are always our biggest day when we have the chicken noodle soup dinner but Saturday was still very well attended,” Fogle said. “We had great weather and that helped people come out and actually participate in it.”

One of the biggest ways the club gives back, according to Fogle, is through the scholarships they offer at EWC. 

“Some of our biggest ones are we offer scholarships to students who are attending EWC,” Fogle said. “I want to say it’s like a $300 scholarship.”

Fogle explained sometimes the number of scholarships the club awards varies from year to year.

“If we have several kids worthy of the scholarship, we have given multiple before,” Fogle explained. 

Some of the funds raised by the club also stay in Yoder. 

“We also donate to things around Yoder. We have done some improvements to the community building. We paid for the exterior LED lights that go around the outside of it. They are a lot more cost-efficient than other lights we had around the exterior. We have taken care of that. We help out a ton with Yoder Days. We kind of help foot the bill for some of the activities and things that happen throughout that day.”

The club also does an art contest for area youth. 

“The women’s club sponsors a local art show for kids k-12 students,” Fogle said. “Anybody can participate in that, and we give out awards to students, like three students per grade level. Then we chose the top ones to go on to our state convention. All of our stuff is displayed at the convention and then they award prizes and kids can earn, I think, $15 for the top prize and then on down from that.” 

The club is always accepting new members, Fogle explained.

“You don’t have to live in Yoder. We have members that live all over. You can live anywhere and be a part of our women’s club,” Fogle explained. “In fact, we’ve got a member from Douglas who drives up here for meetings once a month.” 

There aren’t too many requirements to become a member of the club and there are added benefits to joining, Fogle explained. 

“We do have a small membership fee and aside from that, we ask that you come to the meetings and participate in that and kind of help out with the events that we do,” Fogle explained. “There is a lot of education that goes into being part of it as well. Every month we have an educational program. For example, this year, we had a program on human trafficking and we had a program on immunizations. Our next one coming up is on mammograms and colonoscopies. Each month, a couple of people host it and they bring somebody from the community or they present on a topic they are knowledgeable about and so there is a lot of education that comes with it as well.”

According to Fogle, there is a certain pride in being a part of such an amazing group of ladies.

“I just think it’s nice to be able to be part of a group that is a community serving group,” Fogle said. “There is a lot of satisfaction that comes from being with a group of women and building yourself up and building friendships and doing a lot of things to help serve our communities.”